Thursday, June 28, 2012

Buy a tee from Wildfiretees.com and 100% of the proceeds go to benefit victims of the Colorado wildfires. You can even donate a shirt to a fire fighter.

From their website:

We wanted to create a badge of honor, a symbol of remembrance for this tragedy, those affected by it, and the indomitable spirit of our communities that continue to fight. Colorado is burning, but we stand strong.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

The Fin App is now live and available in the itunes store. Chances are, if you are an angler, you like to take pictures of your catch and taunt share them with your fishing buddies. The Fin is a photo sharing app that allows you to post your photos direct from your smart phone and easily share them on both the app and other social media outlets.

I've been beta testing the app for a few weeks now and can say that, aside from the features you've come to expect from a photo sharing app, the real beauty of The Fin is that it gives you an instant connection to a ready made community of like minded anglers from around the world. Think of it as a virtual fishing club of sorts. A club well worth the nominal dues.

Editor's Note: Around 12-13 years ago I remember our buddy Zugbug writing a fly fishing sci-fi article for our club newsletter. The story was about fishermen using their PDA's to post pictures of their catch directly to the web while standing streamside. I seem to remember his story including selling the fish on ebay as well but for them most part he may well be the Gene Rodenberry of the fly fishing internet world. But I digress...

Jason Puris, the man behind the code, described his creation for us:

"The Fin is a social photosharing APP for fishermen. It allows users toshare photos with The Fin community and distribute them on popularsocial networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare. The Fin userscan also find, follow and invite friends to the APP, comment on and like photos, and add fishing spots as "check in" points. Join the Fin today to chronicle your adventures on the water and help build this incredible fishing community!" We're starting out on the iPhone today but will be launching on Droidin the months to come (hopefully not too long as we're getting tons of requests)

Monday, June 11, 2012

Our pals over at Moldy Chum are peddling a fishy new tee shirt design promoting the bonking of hatchery fish for the benefit of wild Steel. Half the proceeds go the Wild Steelhead Coalition. Get yours before the Hipsters buy them out.

Friday, June 08, 2012

Here's an excerpt from a letter which appeared in today’s Boca Beacon (Boca Grande, Florida) and can also be seen on the Bonefish & Tarpon Trust Blog.

Given the overwhelming support for catch and release of tarpon, it is puzzling why anglers would engage in practices that very likely cause high mortality of tarpon after release – the towing of caught tarpon to a weigh station as part of a tournament. Although data on the effects of towing tarpon are scant, the preliminary data that do exist suggest that towed tarpon exhibit much higher levels of physiological stress than do tarpon that are caught and released but not towed. Moreover, since we know that, in general, more handling time equals lower survival for caught and released fish, it makes sense that increasing the handling time by towing and weighing tarpon will likely decrease survival. The responsible and prudent approach is to reduce handling time, and therefore not engage in towing of tarpon prior to release.

The article goes on to describe methods for obtaining the weight of a tarpon using measurements instead of dragging the fish to the nearest scale. It also gives props to responsible Boca Grande Pass fishing guides.

In closing, a tip of the hat to the highly responsible, talented guides of Boca Grande Pass who practice good catch and release, and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s ongoing tarpon conservation research, each contributing to a sustainable fishery.

Friday, June 01, 2012

The teva mountain games hit Vail, Colorado this weekend and, according to the Denver Post, despite low flows in area rivers the quite sport will draw its share of spectators.

It's
one of the biggest draws of the Teva Games and one of the biggest draws for
these guys and gals as anglers," event organizer Rick Messmer said. "Some of the
people that are here travel from around the world to do these competitions. It's
an unbelievable venue with thousands of people out here watching. It's great for
Teva, it's great for us and it's great for the sport of
fly-fishing."